Setting up an efficient e-commerce site

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Friday, 28 October 2016

Any webmaster knows that designing a website requires careful consideration – even more so for e-commerce sites. Because of the sensitive and complex nature of the site, it is important that the customer has an easy shopping experience. To achieve that goal, here are a few design principles you should incorporate. Here are some of the most important:

1

Include an FAQ page

For a customer to understand how your e-commerce site works, make sure to leave plenty of guides for them. A good place to start is an FAQ page. This page should answer specific questions, such as return policy, cash refunds, delivery time, and waiting period. By answering questions before they are asked, this helps minimise unnecessary queries from customers.

2

Set up analytics

It is crucial to set up analytics for your e-commerce website, so that you can accurately monitor the overall performance of your site. You can also get a better idea of the browsing habits of your visitors, and determine which pages are being visited more frequently, and which ones aren’t. All in all, analytics goes a long way to helping you to fix the weak features of your site, and ultimately reduce the visitor bounce rate.

3

Write fitting and convincing product descriptions

In order to help customers to understand, and ultimately purchase, your products, you need to write accurate and convincing descriptions for them. Start with describing the unique features and functionalities, but be careful not to go overboard or you might just end up sounding like you are bragging. Remember, most internet users have a short attention span. This means you only have a limited window of opportunity to not only spark their interest, but also hold their attention.

4

Use high quality photos

There is absolutely nothing consumers hate more than being deceived. One of the limitations to online shopping is that customers could only find out the actual quality of products once it is delivered to them. One way to help them judge if a product is suitable is to provide high quality photos. Aside from allowing customers to accurately see what the product looks like, good looking pictures can also be a great tool for grabbing their attention.

5

Make your e-commerce site easy to navigate

You can have the best products and services, but it would all be for naught if your visitors don’t even know their way around your site. A site navigation bar can assist visitors by not only by helping them find specific sections, but also help them to see what other pages your site has. Other navigation tips to implement include using generic labels, avoid using drop down menus (because they can obstruct the view of your content), and organising the items on your product list.

6

Utilise payment systems

Some customers may prefer to shop using their credit or debit card, while others like using Paypal or other gateways. To make these online transactions safe and efficient, choose a payment gateway that is supported by your e-commerce platform. Ideally, this gateway should have very few bugs or issues so that customers don’t have to deal with mistaken deductions and purchases.

7

Keep sensitive information confidential

It might seem obvious for an e-commerce site, but there is some information that should be kept private. Client information, in particular, should remain confidential. One way to ensure this data is not leaked is to have an SSL certificate, a security protocol that determines the level of encryption for the link and data transmitted. This feature works by creating an encrypted link between a server and a browser.

8

Choose the right web hosting package

Just as important as the e-commerce site's content is your site's web hosting package, because this ultimately affects the performance of your website. With the right hosting package, you can minimise down time - and don’t have to worry about a slow loading site putting customers off. Luckily, Crazy Domains delivers 300% faster page loading speeds using SSD across a multiple server network, and comes complete with a 99% uptime guarantee.

The point of using these design tips and features is to make the shopping experience much more enjoyable for your customers. Hopefully such tactics will also convince them to spend more time, and money, on your site.